The biggest stars in WWE shined bright Sunday night in the 2012 Night of Champions, which is one of wrestling's most highly anticipated pay-per-view showcases of the year.

The sixth annual Night of Champions was perhaps the most exciting one in history as fans rocked TD Garden in Boston and watched some of wrestling's most fierce storylines unfold and give us a new chapter to each.

What makes the Night of Champions so special is that it features every active WWE championship belt being up for grabs, making a new champion almost inevitable and guaranteeing first-class wrestling. We were given just that Sunday night in one of the year's most epic nights of WWE.

One of WWE's biggest knocks is predictability, but we were all taken by surprise by the events that unfolded in Sunday's Night of Champions as they kept us guessing until the very end and left us with a big-time shocker.

In the night's marquee event, John Cena proved that he's officially back on the map and the most dominant man in WWE. But it wasn't enough for the judges as the match ended in a draw and CM Punk retained his WWE Championship.

Cena looked to be overmatched early, as Punk wore the 35-year-old down and seemed to be cruising to an early victory. However, Cena rallied back and nearly forced a tap-out with his epic strength and put Punk in some tough spots.

Michael N. Todaro/Getty Images

We saw a typical, hard-nosed fight from Cena as he hit his signature moves and wore out Punk down the stretch. Both fighters seemed down and out at times, and the momentum swung with every move.

Cena seemed to have prevailed and won his 11th WWE Championship when he nailed Punk with a German suplex before the shocking announcement was made just seconds after the ending. The referees said that both wrestlers' shoulders were on the ground for the pin, which caused the match to end as a draw.

As Cena complained to the referee, Punk came from behind and knocked him out with the belt to put an exclamation point on an epic night of WWE that wasn't short on controversy.

Sheamus beats Alberto Del Rio

Sheamus dug himself into an early hole against Alberto Del Rio, but came up strong in the second half of the fight to retain his World title.

Sheamus showed more promise early in the fight with a combination of neckbreakers and shoulder blocks, but Del Rio didn't easily give up.

Del Rio fought a hard fight, but angered the refs many times with kicking moves. He even shoved Sheamus into the Spanish announcing table. Though Del Rio nearly got Sheamus to tap out late in the match, he turned the tide yet again and knocked out Del Rio.

Perhaps he faces Ziggler next?

Eve beats Layla to take Divas Championship

Kaitlyn was expected to be a threat to Layla's bid to retain her title, but an injury forced her to withdraw at the beginning of the night.

Eve came in and stole the show.

Both ladies traded big blows early and Eve seemed to be injured, which forced Layla to show signs of sportsmanship by shaking hands. Eve took advantage of it and threw Layla out of the ring.

As the match wore on, Layla seemed to gain momentum and attempted a cross body, which Eve swiftly moved out of and quickly pounced on Layla.

After a back-and-forth battle between the Divas, Layla was hit with a neckbreaker pin by Eve and she became the newest Divas champ.

Bryan and Kane weren't always happy with each other during their tag-team bout, but they hugged it out -- literally -- and went on to take the tag team championship.

After an obvious argument between the two champions, the crowd chanted for the teammates to hug it out. And they did.

Though Kofi and Truth presented a big threat to Bryan and Kane, they prevailed.

The Miz wins 4-way IC title

After a grueling battle between four stars, The Miz defended his Intercontinental title in the four-way match.

He defeated Rey Mysterio, Sin Cara and Cody Rhodes to become reigning champion in the IC.

The Miz has always been known for his strong words and big mouth, but he backed them up Sunday night in a big way.

Zach Ryder wins Battle Royal

Zach Ryder let the field do most of the fighting before he came in and cleaned up, and he saved his best for last.

After many strong contenders (Heath Slater, JinderMahal, JTG and Ted Dibiase) were eliminated, Ryder's job was much easier and he took it to the last few wrestlers in the ring to notch a big-time victory.

Drew McIntyre hung around until the latter stages, but Ryder took care of him with a dropkick that sent D-Mac out of the ring and out of contention. That left Prime Time Players teammates Ryder and Tensai as the lone contenders still fighting.

Though, Ryder had no trouble defeating his teammate and notching the win.

Twitter Reaction

Twitter is always a great springboard for opinions on sports, and this rings even more true in wrestling due to its massive fanbase. With a big pay-per-view event like this, there was no shortage of tweeting.

All in all, it was a fascinating night of WWE and one that ended in a way that none of us saw coming. The 2012 Night of Champions didn't disappoint with its marquee fight of Cena vs. Punk, but it also stayed exciting throughout as even the Divas put on a thrilling show.